The attendance numbers at SDSU’s home football games dipped significantly in 2012.

Turnstile numbers obtained by the U-T this week showed that in comparison to 2011, the Aztecs saw almost a 28 percent drop in the number of fans who passed through the gates at Qualcomm Stadium in 2012.

Turnstile numbers count actual spectators who show up for each game and are a more accurate barometer of how full the stadium is, as opposed to the announced attendance number that is based on the number of tickets distributed for games, and includes no-shows, free tickets and tickets exchanged for trade.

In 2012, SDSU’s announced attendance over seven home games was 211,587, but its turnstile attendance was 143,921.

Both numbers are much lower than they were in 2011, when the Aztecs saw a remarkable 199,039 pass through turnstiles, and announced a total of 279,056.

“We’d anticipated a significant dip,” said Chuck Lang, the associate athletic director for business administration. “We overachieved in 2011, and we knew the home schedule wasn’t as good (in 2012).”

The Aztecs drew throngs to Qualcomm Stadium in 2011 in part because they hosted some of the Mountain West’s best teams, which made for intriguing matchups.

Boise State, Texas Christian and Fresno State all came to town that year.

But last season’s home schedule lacked the same caliber of marquee opponents.

The Aztecs hosted Hawaii, Colorado State, UNLV and Air Force – three of which finished in the bottom half of the Mountain West standings.

This year, the home schedule is much more favorable in terms of potential ticket sales.

SDSU will host Nevada – a team it beat in overtime on the road last year – co-Mountain West champions Boise State and Fresno State and a big non-conference game against Oregon State.

“We feel we have four very strong games this year versus last year,” Lang said. “We really only had what we thought were two strong games in Army and Air Force last year.”

And since SDSU isn’t the sort of program that sells out its season tickets every season, the caliber of opponent makes a significant difference in ticket sales, especially in season tickets.

Last season’s attendance numbers reflected these no-shows – the turnstile count of 143,921 was almost 32 percent lower than the announced attendance of 211,587.

“We anticipate the no-show rate will be a lot lower this year than last year,” said Steve Schnall, SDSU’s associate athletic director in charge of marketing, who also added that the department is projecting attendance numbers on par with the record-breaking year they had in 2011.

Season ticket sales have actually been on the uptick.

As of the beginning of June, the Aztecs had sold about 8,000 season tickets.

“We’re a couple hundred ahead of where we were last year at this point,” Schnall said. “Last year we sold 8,492 paid (season tickets).”

Between the competitive home schedule, the fact that the Aztecs are coming off a championship season, and a new set of game promotion plans, Schnall said SDSU’s marketing department is hoping that this is the year the stars will align and send the football team’s popularity through the roof.